The congressional delegation requested the extension to give elected officials more time to enact postal reform legislation and to allow the Postal Service to study the impact of proposed closures on local communities more closely.

On Long Island, a post office in Garden City, an annex in Melville and a logistics and distribution center in Bethpage were slated to be closed. Ten other postal facilities were going to be closed around New York state by as early as March. The moratorium pushed that date back to May 15, 2012.

“While this is not a permanent solution, I am pleased that the Postmaster General is putting a five-month moratorium on the closures of postal facilities,” Gillibrand said. “In New York, more than 1,000 jobs, 100 post offices and seven area mail processing centers will continue serving their communities while Congress works on reforming the Postal Service to ensure its survival.”